I was exercising my black thoroughbred stallion Diabolo, at nightfall, when I noticed a strange white glow in the sky. The glow was coming from the Wingate Film Set! I shortened my stirrup leathers, dug my heels in and thundered up the firebreak at break neck speed and galloped along the Hutt Hills ridge Track. I skidded to a halt took out my specially constructed viewing device and this is what I saw ... A huge white globe hanging off a crane above the ruined castle. It looked like a huge moon! This was the glow I had seen lighting up the night sky in the distance. I believe the globe was being used for a lighting effect, as it lit up the interior of the castle in a very eerie manner. The front of the castle has been changed somewhat, with a couple of ruined arches having been added. A ruined wall, or a bridge? of some sort, has been added to the front of the set. Stairs lead up to it, and I spotted extras lounging around on the stairs looking quite exhausted. I zoomed my viewing device in closer and saw a couple of flash-looking guys standing on the battlements. One was black haired and dressed in a brown cloak, the other was dressed in green, carried a bow and a quiver of arrows and had his hood pulled over his face. Yes indeed very interesting! Then I heard the voice of PJ! “Action.” The two flash-looking guys on the battlements ran down some stairs. They were joined by guys in black plated armour. The stairs led down into the interior of the castle. I zoomed my device in even closer and looked into one of the archways on the front of the ruins. A large group of Orcs sprinted past yelling in the most fearsome manner! Then a group of flash guys appeared, all wearing green or brown cloaks. Some carried fire torches and a huge battle began. I saw swords, axes, spears and other awful weapons used in the massive brawl! I then noticed that some of the extras were wearing scarlet colored cloaks and were in the black plated armour. Hmmmmmmm interesting! Then I saw a group of actors(?) and extras appear out of the archway; they then collapsed onto the ruined stairs in an exhausted manner! Poor things! Bet they were having fun though! I also spotted what I thought was a Hobbit-sized actor, dressed in a green cloak with a hood. I cannot be sure of this, as I was a long way from the set. I also believe that the interior of the set may have been flooded! How I know this, I will not tell HeHeHeeeeeeeeeee. Spinning Diabolo around, I thundered off into the darkness to send Tehanu the report.

Farewell my friends

Madame Butterfly

Action at Wingate means...ACTION!!Tehanu @ 5:50 pm ESTWish I was there. We asked for clarification on the layout of the new Wingate set in relation to the ruinous city that was there last, and we got this report thanks to the Wellington Reporter:

Tehanu - the bit I described is to the left of the castle that the EP (Evening Post) took a photo of. That castle is still there, and the new set is seperate from it. They did night shoots at Wingate last week. There was a huge illuminated white sphere suspended over the set by a crane. The sphere was about 15 feet in diameter, and the glow could be seen for miles about. It looked like a moon hanging over the castle. Several extras in plate armour were spotted, along with some orcs. Much yelling and sounds of battle were heard inside the set. The huge sphere cast an eerie light through the set, and there was a lot of smoke being pumped through the set to add to the effect. Brilliant.

The new set has a large wall. In the center of the wall is a large archway. To the left and right of the archway there are decorative designs carved into the wall. Directly in front of this wall is the large circle with the hole in the center.I suspect this new set is a courtyard or grand entranceway of some sort.

The large creature that the EP photographed is definitely an Oliphaunt. There were catapaults and siege weapons seen at Queen Elizabeth Park too. Filming has finished there, and the set was being dismantled today, which gave me an opportunity to get a good look, without any trucks blocking the view of the Oliphaunt :)

Some people seem confused about Taita and Wingate. They are adjacent suburbs of Lower Hutt. The 'Wingate set' I talk about is in Peterkin Street. This street is on the boundary of Wingate and Taita, so the Evening Post may state Taita, while I say the set is in Wingate. So Taita and Wingate are the same set. I hope this clears things up :)"

Wow, thanks for that!

11-24-00

Herald to the RingsXoanon @ 10:56 am ESTThe NZ Herald had this massive map of NZ made to look like Middle-earth in it's paper recently, some great pics from the production here!

11-22-00

Busy builders at WingateTehanu @ 2:11 pm ESTIt looks like the Wingate set's undergoing yet another transformation. The Wellington Reporter checks in with this story:

"There has been no more filming at Wingate since last week, but there is another set being built on the same site. A large scaffold about 40 feet high has been built, probably the foundations for a wall. In front of this scaffolding a concrete footpath has been made. This footpath is in the shape of a circle about 40 feet in diameter, with two straight paths crossing the centre. In the very centre, where the two straight paths meet, is a large round hole. There are several stacks of timber about, and a couple of small front-end loaders are moving gravel about. I will keep an eye on developments."

I got 'The Summit' (The magazine of the sports clothing dealer Kathmandu's Summit Club) in the mail today, and found an article about the movies. It's four paragraphs of text, but the only information that I think is new was in the first paragraph:

"At the end of February this year the staff at Kathmandu started working on what would prove to be an exciting connection with the production of The Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand. The cast and crew of this huge production were offered a considerable discount at selected Kathmandu stores, and since then actors, crew members, and extras have been able to keep warm and look cool in adverse locations such as volcanic Rotorua in the North Island and alpine Twizel in the South Island. There is a lot of waiting around when filming, especially for the extras, and in order to fully enjoy being part of such a fantastic experience they need to keep warm. Therefore we set up a deal so that those who wanted to could cosy up in our Polartec, Gore-Text, and Ecofleece clothing, and stay warm and dry throughout the filming."

--Sonja Hepso, Editor, The Summit

Also, at the end of the article they mentioned three websites about the movies, one of which was theonering.net!

'I got 'The Summit' (The magazine of the sports clothing dealer Kathmandu's Summit Club) in the mail today, and found an article about the movies. It's four paragraphs of text, but the only information that I think is new was in the first paragraph:

"At the end of February this year the staff at Kathmandu started working on what would prove to be an exciting connection with the production of The Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand. The cast and crew of this huge production were offered a considerable discount at selected Kathmandu stores, and since then actors, crew members, and extras have been able to keep warm and look cool in adverse locations such as volcanic Rotorua [really? First we've heard of it -T.] in the North Island and alpine Twizel in the South Island. There is a lot of waiting around when filming, especially for the extras, and in order to fully enjoy being part of such a fantastic experience they need to keep warm. Therefore we set up a deal so that those who wanted to could cosy up in our Polartec, Gore-Text, and Ecofleece clothing, and stay warm and dry throughout the filming."--Sonja Hepso, Editor, The Summit

Also, at the end of the article they mentioned three websites about the movies, one of which was theonering.net!

Hmm, well if Kathmandu's going to mention us, I'll mention them back. My Kathmandu polartec windbreaker is my favourite gear and I've worn it everywhere from location-scouting in the Alps to cycling to work to looking trendy at after-match functions. Nice to know the LOTR crew share my taste.

Well I had a day to myself on Saturday, and a car to myself, so I took my trusty Pentax P-50 on a tour of Wellington to see what I could see.

First stop of course was Haywards Hill to see how the set was progressing there. A few workmen were being kept busy but I'd say there's still another week or two before this set becomes live. Which doesn't leave them much time to film, I guess!

I also scored some angles that readers may not have seen before

Then I took a trip out to Paekak to see the action out there. Lots of rehearsing, but all the extras were in civvies and seem to be milling around on horses. Here's a view of the oliphaunt/nazgul from behind.

Not wanting to get prosecuted for trespass, I didn't get any closer, so I left it at that. There was a patch of 'burnt-looking' grass by the feet of the model, as evidenced in the previous photo on TORN. However, there didn't seem to be much else in the way of set that I could say. Maybe something's coming in later?

So, and for what it's worth... the translation of the french text is not complete nor accurate. There's a few tidbits inside:

According to the spy:..

- December 2000: world presentation of the new teaser and press conference live from NZ.

- Cannes 2001 : "a big launch of some sort "... in fact, it says: World launching, presenting the 1st movie and the trailer of the 2nd movie! (It could mean a world premiere in Cannes!), major press event.

- Fall 2001: world premiere of the final trailer.

- December 2001 : worldwide release of the first film.

(and that's a great news... especially in France where we had to wait 5 more months to get SWE1) (the three movies are planned to be released in 25 different languages.)